networkZONE Products for the week of September 16, 2002
Galazar Networks Says…
Flexible Framer - Galazar Networks' Multi-Service
Framer Supports Telecom and Datacom Access Over Existing Infrastructures
Galazar Networks Inc. announces the development of the MSF250
Multi Service Framer, the first complete system-on-a-chip (SoC) framer to
offer the comprehensive SONET device integration of legacy telecom DS-1
and Ethernet data services.
A single MSF250 framer offers multiple voice, leased line and data service interfaces such as 10/100 Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, T1/E1, and DS3/E3, mapping into protected SONET/SDH lines from OC-3 to OC-48. The MSF250 is the world's first device to simultaneously support mixed High-Order (STS) and Low-Order (VT) Virtual Concatenation (VC) with Link Capacity-Adjustment Scheme (LCAS). This maximizes carriers' service offerings and therefore increases their revenues from the existing access infrastructure. Galazar designed the MSF250, which is targeted at access equipment OEMs, in collaboration with multiple carriers and tier one customers.
"Galazar's MSF250 is the most comprehensive integration of advanced legacy and Ethernet services in a single system-on-a-chip device," said Richard Deboer, CEO, Galazar Networks. "Our customers will be able to drive down the cost of offering traditional access services while enabling new Ethernet services, all without changes to the existing network infrastructure."
The Galazar engineering team has extensive system-level experience across the diverse functional areas of PDH framers, Ethernet mappers and SONET framers. For each discipline, Galazar has the industry experts with several generations of product development experience that a product like the MSF250 requires.
"Galazar's framer technology enables carrier equipment to deliver existing and next-generation services to enterprises, without the need for central office investments or upgrades," said Scott Clavenna, president, PointEast Research. "Galazar's MSF250 addresses one of the few areas where carriers are spending. It will help deliver new services with a return on investment that is less than six months with a pay-as-you-grow business model. In today's market, carriers are focusing on leveraging existing infrastructure and operations to offer new profit-generating services and more cost-effectively deliver traditional services."
Galazar Networks has entered into a relationship with Intel's Microelectronics
Services division whereby Intel will provide backend design, manufacturing
and operations services for Galazar's MSF250. The relationship will improve
operations as the product goes to volume deployment.
analogZONE Says . . .
Upon receiving the news that Galazar was rolling out a line of SONET chips my first reaction was "why on earth is someone starting up another telecom semiconductor company, especially in these times?" After a closer look, it appears that Galazar has done their homework and is actually pursuing one of the untapped segments of the SONET/telecom market that has not been fully addressed by the traditional heavyweights in the field. Galizar's game plan is to cash in on the anticipated shift from ASIC-based SONET hardware to commodity silicon, a trend that has recently been accelerated by tight cash constraints from the downturn. In order to do this, they are using the system-level expertise of its designers who used to work for the big networking houses to deliver some very versatile merchant silicon for use in carrier-class legacy and next-gen SONET access equipment.
Much of today's transport gear (actual physical equipment involved with the core and to some extent, big metro rings) use big, honking ASICs for their framing, termination and overhead processing functions. This is analogous to the IP router market in the early nineties, where ASICs vastly outnumbered merchant chip sets - especially in high-end boxes. Back then, hardware was the accepted way for IP equipment makers to implement special features and upgrade paths that differentiated their products. Now, core routers which employ commodity silicon and tons of custom software.
But, big ASICs are getting increasingly expensive - even for core SONET equipment manufacturers. The folks at Galazar have tried to create a chip that will let core equipment manufacturers take advantage of the economics of merchant silicon while retaining most of the flexibility accorded by full-custom chips. They point out that most chips to date are aimed at data (packet)-oriented platforms that frame IP into SONET, with little accommodation of multi-service requirements. Galazar's efforts on the other hand focus on the silicon that handles bulk transport for carriers - the sort of application that needs a few specialized attributes, including high reliability, fast, clean recovery from failures, and efficient performance.
Their first product, the MSF 250, is a multi-service framer capable of terminating anything from an OC-3 through an OC-48 connection at the subscriber side. It was designed to run the boxes that sit in small-to-medium multi-tenant buildings, providing 4-8 customers with any combination of voice access, leased line, and Ethernet access (private line between sites or "last-hop" Ethernet) connections. It has been optimized for the majority of CPE applications to let system operators use a "plug-and-play" approach in most applications. For demanding custom configurations, its programmable guts can be configured to mix-and-match features, feeds, and functions and via a variety of service interfaces.
The line side of the chip supports data rates from
OC-3 through OC-48, using an external CDR from an optical module. While
an external CDR adds some cost, it provides a low-risk approach multi-rate
connection for this first-generation product (expect more integration in
subsequent chips.) The data then goes through a transport overhead (TOH)
processor and an add/drop block. From there, a time slot access bus bridges
packet-based traffic to the SONET connection. Of course the device speaks
both SONET and SDH. Its integral DS3 block can either serve as a client
interface, or in the event that there is no other trunk back to the CO.
If you need it, the '250 can support up to 28 T-1 user interfaces, as well
as two Gbit Ethernet ports. And if you need to add another interface, the
chip's telecom bus allows you to do so easily.
To the best of my knowledge, the MSF 250 is the only chip that allows you to mix high- and low-order mapping. The mapper can mix STS-1 (51 Mbit) streams with low order VT/VC traffic and feed back into the TSA to be framed as needed. It also supports the new LCAS and VCAT protocols for more efficient use of network bandwidth.
Several equipment vendors co-defined the chip's support for tough carrier-class standards and interoperability. Galazar's design team seems to have gone to great lengths to address customer concerns such as the ability to "talk" to a heterogeneous community of legacy devices that a new box might encounter in a typical network.
One of the biggest challenges a merchant SONET chip faces is the lack of firm standards within SONET - thanks to different interpretations of the standard, interoperability between boxes from different vendors is not guaranteed. Much of the problem involves alarms, reporting and response, and failover behaviour. A merchant chip must also be able to handle non-standard SONET, i.e. the vendor-specific additions to the protocol that enhance performance. The emerging Digital Wrapper spec (which can be supported by Galazar) is an attempt to allow non-standard SONET to run on multi-vendor networks. The transparent overhead protocol (supported by Galazar) allows boxes to pass non-standard control overhead without interference.
The '250's programmable architecture allows most of these interoperability issues to be addressed in software. Carriers like this approach because it re-uses existing infrastructure with minimal upgrades, and derives new services from existing connections.
In keeping with its focus on carrier-class operations, Galazar has put several hooks into its chips to allow failovers to be isolated to the source down to the "service pack" (line card or swappable unit) and automatically changed out to a spare within 50 ms or less. The MSF250 also has extensive on-chip diagnostics and status monitoring, plus capability to test "dormant circuitry" used infrequently for fault detection/correction. For more information, you can obtain a product brief by clicking here, but be warned that you will have to register with Galazar for the privilege.
If this company was not based in Kanata, Canada, I'd have stronger suspicions that it had been put together (like so many Silicon Valley ventures) with the sole purpose of being bought by AMCC, Conexant, Cypress, PMC, or other SONET heavyweight. Given the more sensible mindset that prevails in Kanata, and the current gloomy business climate, it's more likely that this brave little band of siliconistas have planned on going it alone - at least for the moment.
It will be interesting to see if Galazar manages
to gain market traction in such tough times. In theory, the significantly
lower development costs their framer offers should be a big incentive for
box makers to at least consider them, but I expect this will take time.
They say that they understand that initial sales will be slow but point
out that they must get in the market now to catch the design cycles for
the equipment that will power the next telecoms' boom. This could be a winning
strategy if Galazar can maintain technical leadership in this emerging market,
and overcome major equipment maker's natural reluctance to tie their fortunes
to a small startup chip
merchant. Once they get their first product to market some time in early
'03, I would expect to them to try to firm up their position by developing
a CO-side solution. In the near future, we might also expect specialized
framers, that are optimized for some of the newer protocols and emerging
applications.
The MSF250 will be available Q1 '03, with pricing around $500.
I'm relatively confident that Galazar will be able
to deliver its product, but realize that it will face some serious competition
from companies with full product lines that will be chasing after the advanced
features Galazar has brought to market first. The should however, be able
to count on some business from upstart equipment manufacturers who are willing
to take a chance on a new company to gain a market advantage. From there,
it's up to Galazar to maintain its technical lead and broaden its product
line quickly enough to grab sufficient market share to make a stable business
out of their promising venture. I wish them luck and look forward to seeing
what they have up their sleeves next.
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